I guess to be fair it's because I think tablets and ultrabooks are too expensive in general lol.

 

-----signature-----

Since I dislike apple people tend to lump me in with your typical apple/mac hater, but this simply isn't the case. As I said in my previous post I came to my dislike of apple while they were still an inconsequential computer company that barely rated one shelf at the very back of most best buy or compusa stores. It had nothing to do with how popular they were or how people tend to hate the popular trending thing. I dislike them because, as a software developer, they can my life hell at any given moment due to the closed nature of their OS.

There are 3 smart phones and 2 tablets in my house currently. An iPad 1, an iPhone 4, an iPhone 4s, a HTC evo, and Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 (the new one). They're ALL good products. Is the iPhone build quality so much better than the EVO? No. Is it stronger due to being metal? Yes. Does it feel more solid? I can't really tell if one feels more sturdy than the other, they've all been put through the paces and both work fine. Does that make a bit of difference to someone who takes care of their stuff? Not a bit.

I also have 5 computers running, 3 desktops that I built and 2 laptops, one HP and one Toshiba. Does the lack of metal in the design hinder anything at all? Again, not a bit. If you drop a laptop, it's not the outside that's going to break, it's the inside stuff, so what is around the thing doesn't make a lick of difference unless you run over it with a car. In which case, yes, the mac is better.

No problem, we simply disagree on our interpretations of quality. Nothing wrong with that as we both have the option to purchase the product best matching our needs/desires. Win/Win in my book!

 

-----signature-----

I never noticed apple having better build quality over others. Apple has had as many issues as anyone else. Some of which has lead to some funny comments from apple even though they were serious. Good entertainment.

Apple tends to focus more on "visual" designs. The downside is that sometimes that can lead to quality issues in couple of cases. Though generally not glaring issues most of the time since these things to get tested out. But it can happen. Apple is not alone in that either, they just get more press (also because of apple statements).


Appeal <> Quality

That is the best way I can put it, though they are not exclusive to each other.


I have not owned an apple product for a very long time. Mostly because I would have to put in little extra effort to not use itunes on it . Right now I have a cowon mp3 which I liked so much more then comparable ipods. It was not even a contest. And I have a 4g phone.

I would like a tablet, but waiting for win8 to see how that stacks up vs ios vs android.

 

-----signature-----

Haven't messed with many Apple products. But those that I have, they've used high quality materials, have an rather intelligent design, and felt built to last to me more, so than products from ASUS, Dell, HP, etc.

Also what helps Apple's quality image is they don't really mess around with lower end items, which also contributes to the image of them being over priced.

Not really but reasoned debate seems infinitely beyond your grasp so you run along and think what you will.

 

-----signature-----

Of course, but my point was, if they are all "bad", then what? We have our choice between Google, Apple, and Microsoft. I hear people rant about all three of recent.

 

-----signature-----

It's not just an image of overpriced. The $1000 MacBook mentioned earlier has the same hardware specs as a < $500 laptop for nearly all other brands. The reason it works is the same reason an xbox 360 and a ps3 play games better than a pc with far better equipment, the software is designed specifically for that hardware. The catch on that though is that as Windows progresses it's drivers are getting better.

With each subsequent OS after XP (yes, even Vista after the first few months of horrible driver messes) have been pigeon holing hardware manufacturers into building to certain specs. In the near future, probably 2 or 3 releases from now, it won't matter what hardware you have if you buy from a company that aims to fit Microsoft's mold (and the vast majority do). The OS and hardware will mesh together every bit as well as an Apple and it's prebuilt machines.

Yeah, it kinda sucks that we have to wait that long, but that's the drawback of having an open market, but it also has its benefits.

Comparing a regular cheap thick heavy laptop to a Macbook Air is an extremely poor comparison.

A big reason for the higher price of the Macbook Air and Intel Ultrabooks is the very compact slim size, the ultra low power components. Specially constructed cases to dissipate heat, etc. Comparable Ultrabooks like the Zenbook cost about $1000 or more as well. There are a few cheaper Ultrabooks under $1000, but some of them are boarderline netbooks in my opinion.